The Promise
by Hummina
Summary: The boys are excited to spend the weekend with a very special lady. Happy Birthday Kristy!


**THE PROMISE**

"Hey Hutch," Starsky glanced at his partner in the passenger seat. "Did you remember not to make any plans this weekend?"

"You bet partner, no way I would miss this. Not after we promised Kristy we would both be there to celebrate her birthday this year." Hutch could not help the grin that appeared. They had been discussing their plans for this weekend for a couple of weeks now.

Starsky looked at his partner again, "I got everything set. This year, I got us a little house on the beach. There will be lots to do. In and out of the house."

Hutch smiled, "Sounds good partner. I am glad her birthday is on a Friday, gives us the whole weekend."

The radio came to life, _"Zebra Three, Zebra Three"_

Hutch picked it up, "Zebra Three, go ahead."

"_Zebra Three, caller states he has information on your robbery case. Will be at the bar on Alameda near Booker St."_

The partners exchanged a puzzled look as Hutch answered, "Ten-four dispatch."

Starsky spoke first, "Now, who do you suppose would call the station for a meet with us? Don't most of our snitches go through Huggy?"

Hutch shrugged, "I guess we will find out."

Dobey walked into his office to a ringing phone. He picked it up as he was sitting down to his desk. "Dobey."

A very excited Huggy Bear barely let him get that out, "Captain, this is Huggy. I know you can get in touch with Starsky and Hutch faster than I can. Tell them not to meet anyone, anywhere. They need to get here, or to the station, right away. They are being set-up!"

Dobey jumped to his feet, "Don't hang up, I have questions and I need answers. Let me get those boys headed here first."

Dobey put Huggy on hold and called dispatch, "Patch me through to Zebra Three right away!"

Hutch had gotten out of the car and headed towards the bar. Starsky started to follow when he heard the captain on the radio.

"_Zebra Three, Zebra Three, this is Dobey. I need you to respond right now!"_

As Starsky was picking up the radio he had his eye on Hutch walking through the door of the bar. "Hey Cap'n, what's going on? I need to catch up with" Just then there was an explosion and the whole front wall of the bar looked like it disappeared.

Starsky forgot about Dobey, dropped the radio and started running, "HUTCH! HUTCH! Can you hear me? Are you hurt? HUTCH!"

Dobey knew he was not going to get Starsky back, dialed dispatch and told them to send everyone to Zebra Three's last known location. He was almost out the door when he remembered Huggy, he picked the phone back up. "Huggy, we were too late. There has been an explosion, I am headed there now." He then gave Huggy the address and bolted out the door.

Hutch had just realized that something was very wrong when he was knocked off his feet by an explosion. His last conscious thought was to wonder where his partner was.

Starsky was frantically trying to dig through the rubble. He could hear sirens, but did not slow down his effort to get to his partner. Then he heard shouts for him to stop, and that just caused him to redouble his efforts. Finally, several firemen forcibly removed him from where he was digging. He tried to fight them off until he was faced with a very insistent Captain.

"Starsky! Stop fighting and listen. They were trying to tell you that the whole building is unstable. If it is not done carefully, trying to dig him out could just cause the rest of it to come down on him. Now, you come over here and tell me what happened and let them do their job."

Starsky looked at his Captain and tried to quell the panic he was feeling. Then he felt another hand on his shoulder and turned to see Huggy.

"Don't worry Curly, they will get him out of there. I am so sorry I was too late. I don't know who they are yet, but I will. They can't mess with my brothers and expect me to sit back. You have gotten too close on your robbery investigation. This was someone trying to take you out."

Starsky looked confused, "I don't understand. Why would someone put other people at risk just to get to us? I don't even know how many people are in there."

Huggy spoke up again, "That's just it, that bar is closed. The only people they were after were you and Blondie."

Suddenly, they saw renewed activity at the building. It took both Huggy and Dobey to keep Starsky from running over there.

"C'mon Cap'n, that's Hutch in there. Let me go!"

Dobey shook his head, "No son, you wait right here. They are the experts in this. Let them do their jobs."

Inside, Hutch was shaking his head to try to clear it. Once he realized where he was, he got up and started to frantically search for his partner. "Starsky! Where are you? Starsky!"

He turned when he heard noise coming from the rubble. He went over and started trying to move some of it. He thought maybe the noise was Starsky. He knew his partner was right behind him when he came in. He was terrified that Starsky was buried under all this debris. He stopped when he heard the noise again. It sounded like it was coming from outside.

"Starsky, is that you!?"

The noise stopped, then he heard a voice. _"Detective Hutchinson, can you hear me?"_

"Yes, yes, I can hear you. Did you find my partner? Is he hurt?"

"_Your partner is fine; he is out here with us. Detective, the building is very unstable. You need to stop trying to dig out. Now that we know exactly where you are, we can concentrate on getting to you. Are you injured?"_

Hutch had not really stopped to check for injuries, he was so worried about finding his partner. "No, I have a headache, but other than that I don't think I am hurt."

"_Great, just sit tight, we will get to you soon."_

A fireman ran over to the little group by the car. "Detective Starsky, we were just talking to your partner. He appears to be uninjured and we should have him out soon. Please wait here, we don't want to have to stop trying to get to him, to worry about you."

The three friends waited. Starsky was still anxious, but much less frantic now that he knew Hutch was not hurt. It probably took about twenty-five minutes, it felt like hours, but he finally saw the fireman helping Hutch out of the building. They were trying to get him on a stretcher when he got to him.

Hutch was not happy, "Look. I do not need a stretcher; I do not need a hospital. I just want to go home."

Starsky chuckled, "Hutch, just let them look after you for a little bit. I can see where something hit you in the head. We have a big weekend coming up, and you want to be in good shape for it."

Hutch scowled, "Alright, since you put it that way, but I am not getting on that stretcher!"

They finally got a reluctant Hutch to the hospital. While he was getting checked, Huggy came in. "Just the one I was looking for. I told you that I was going to find out who did this. I have already given the information to Captain Dobey. He says for you not to worry about it."

He heard a throat clear behind him, "If you don't mind, I will tell my men what to worry about."

Huggy put his hands up and took a step back, "Sure Captain, you go right on ahead. Now that I know these two are good, and the creeps that did this are caught, I have a restaurant to run."

Dobey turned to Starsky, "Well, he did give us some good information. We got the ones that were pulling the robberies. Simmons and Babcock already picked them up, and they are singing like birds. Turns out only one of them went after you, the rest didn't know about it, and didn't want anything to do with it. You guys go ahead and start your weekend early. I will see you on Monday."

Just a few minutes after Dobey left, Hutch came out. "Just like I said, nothing wrong with me. I don't even have a concussion. Just a few bumps and bruises that are no big deal."

Starsky grinned, "That's great! Dobey just gave us the rest of the week off. If you call Kristy, I will call the guy I rented the house from. Maybe we can get her birthday weekend started early."


End file.
